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THE 


DESTINY    OF    MAN: 

AN    ORATION 


Delivered  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Easton,  Pa.,  on  Tuesday  Evening 
July  26th,  1853, 


IJEKURE    THE 


ALUMNI  OF  LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE, 


PRECEDING  COMMENCEMENT. 


liY    THE 

Rev.  WILLIAM  HEJSRY  GREEN, 

PROFESSOR     IX     THE    THEOLOGICAL     SEMINARY,    PRINCETON,    NEW    JERSEf. 


PHILADELPHIA. 
WILLIAM     S.    MARTIEN 

1853. 


wg.  ==^__   ..  -   ^^ 


THE 


DESTINY    OF    MAN: 


AN    ORATION 


DELIVERED   BEFORE   THE 


ALUMNI  OF  LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE, 


PRECEDING  COMMENCEMENT, 


IX  THE  FIRST  PRESBTTERIAX  CHCRCH,  EA3TOX,  PA.,  OX  TUESDAY  EYEXIXG,  JULY  26,  1853. 


BY   THE 


•   Rev.  WILLIAM  HEXRY  GREEX, 

PROFESSOR     IX     THE    THEOLOGICAL     SEMIXARY,    PRIXCETOX,    XEW    JERSEY. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

WILLIAM    S.    MAR  TIEN, 

1853. 


Key.  William  H.  Green: 

Dear  Sir — We  have  been  appointed  a  Committee  of  the 
Alumni  to  express  to  you  the  thanks  of  the  Association  for  your 
able  and  eloquent  address  of  last  evening,  and  to  request  a  copy 
for  publication.  The  subject  was  one  of  interest,  and  its  discus- 
sion was  creditable  to  yourself  and  the  Society  you  represented. 
For  these  reasons  we  hope  you  will  see  the  propriety  of  comply- 
ing with  the  wishes  of  the  Association. 
Yours  respectfully, 

E.  F.  Stewart,  ") 

Wm.  "W.  Cottingham,  V  Committee. 
H.  Green,  J 

Easton,  Wednesday,  July  27th,  1853. 


To  Messrs.  E.  F.  Stewart,  W.  W.  Cottingham  and  H.  Green, 
Committee  of  the  Association  of  Alumni. 

Gentlemen — I  greatly  fear  that  the  address  to  which  you  refer 
will  not  be  found  to  merit  the  commendation  expressed  in  your 
note.  Nevertheless,  I  feel  constrained  to  place  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Association  what  was  prepared  for  them  and  at  the  instance 
of  their  kind  partiality. 

Truly  yours, 

W.  Henry  Green. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/detai-ls/denoratOOgree 


THE    DESTINY    OF    MAN. 


Sons  of  Lafayette!  I  greet  you  as  one  of  yourselves. 
I  revisit  these  scenes,  once  so  familiar,  with  feelings  akin  to 
those  indulged  by  him  who  returns  after  years  of  absence 
upon  ancestral  halls.  Memories  of  the  past  are  stirred; 
visions  flit  before  me  of  years  gone  by.  My  imagination  re- 
peoples  with  familiar  forms  and  faces,  spots  which  they  have 
long  forsaken,  and  transports  me  back  again  to  the  merry 
days  of  yore.  It  is  the  pleasing  illusion  of  a  moment  which 
a  moment  more  dispels.  My  classmates!  My  College 
friends!  where  are  they?  A  few  here  perhaps:  more 
scattered  over  the  wide  world,  contending  with  various  suc- 
cess for  the  prizes  dispensed  upon  its  crowded  arena;  some 
are  already  gathered  to  the  silent  tomb.  As  I  linger  here, 
and  cherished  recollections  pour  in  upon  me,  I  would  fain 
recall  the  past.  I  would  that  I  could  bid  the  world  stand 
still,  or  cause  its  ponderous  wheels  to  traverse  back  the  spaces 
over  which  they  have  already  rolled.  But  life  flies  apace. 
The  march  of  time  is  onward.  It  turns  not  back,  nor  stops. 
The  mighty  tide,  along  which  we  are  borne  and  a  part  of 
which  we  are,  is  ever  on  the  flow.  It  knows  no  ebb.  The 
high  destinies  of  earth  are  ever  accomplishing  under  the 
bidding  of  the  Supreme.    The  flood  of  human  affairs  rolls  on 


6 

unceasingly  and  resistlessly,  entirely  beyond  the  control  of 
individual  men.  These  can  no  more  check  its  progress,  or 
refuse  to  yield  themselves  up  to  its  power,  than  those  drops 
of  water  which  in  their  aggregate  make  up  the  currents  of 
your  beautiful  streams  can  disobey  the  impulse  which  hurries 
them  onward  to  the  ocean. 

Is  it  a  forced  analogy  to  compare  our  academic  retreat 
to-day  to  waters  in  repose,  to  a  quiet  eddy  formed  behind  the 
walls  of  Alma  Mater,  into  which  we  have  escaped  from  the 
rush  of  agitated  waters  beyond,  shortly  again  to  re-enter 
them  and  to  be  hurried  onward  ?  Let  us  improve  the  calm 
of  this  unruffled  hour  to  cast  a  hasty  glance  upon  the  broad 
surface  of  the  stream.  Under  what  impulsion  is  it  rushing 
forward  ?  And  whither  is  it  sweeping  with  its  vast  living 
cargo?  Can  we  calculate  the  forces?  Can  we  divine  the 
end?  This  suggests  my  theme,  The  Destiny  of  Man,  not 
the  individual,  but  the  collective  race,  viewed  not  as  a  child 
of  heaven,  but  as  a  tenant  of  the  earth. 

"Whatever  doubts  some  of  the  would-be  wise  have  ventured 
in  modern  times  respecting  the  unity  in  origin  of  the  human 
race,  it  is  undeniable  that  mankind  is  morally  and  historically 
one.  The  population  of  our  globe  is  not  a  prodigious  assem- 
blage of  individualities,  related  only  by  the  loose  aggregation 
of  the  sand  heap.  Society — the  Human  Race : — there  must 
be  some  idea  suggested  by  those  sounds,  and  there  must  be 
some  reality  correspondent  to  their  meaning.  "What  do  these 
words  imply?  Not  merely  that  there  are  vast  numbers  of 
individual  men,  alike  in  physical  structure  and  in  mental  con- 
stitution, yet  Btanding  apart,  each  by  himself.  These  words 
awaken  the  conception  of  a  unity,  in  which  all  the  parts  are 
held  together,  forming  one  inseparable  whole.  They  speak 
of  multiplied,  diversified  and  strong  relations.  Society  finds 
not  its  counterpart  in  some  crowded  thoroughfare  through 


which  men  press,  each  holding  on  to  his  own  way  and  busied 
with  his  own  thoughts,  scarce  noticing  the  throng  around 
him,  except  to  avoid  being  jostled  by  them  as  they  pass. 
Constrained  by  necessities  of  his  inward  nature  to  put  him- 
self in  living  connection  with  his  fellows,  man  is  subjected  in 
consequence  to  new  laws  of  life,  to  new  conditions  of  activity. 
He  no  more  moves  or  acts  by  himself  or  for  himself  alone 
than  one  of  the  planets  of  our  solar  system  can  wheel  on- 
ward in  its  orbit  uninfluencing  and  uninfluenced.  And  as 
well  might  the  natural  philosopher  think  to  discover  all  that 
can  be  known  of  matter  in  the  laws  which  govern  a  single 
body  unacted  upon  from  without,  while  neglecting  those 
which  regulate  the  motions,  harmonies  and  perturbations  of 
bodies  acting  on  each  other,  as  the  student  of  man  imagine 
that  he  can  get  to  the  bottom  of  his  subject  by  the  sole  study 
of  the  isolated  individual.  Each  man  born  injto  the  world 
becomes  a  part  of  the  moving  mass,  and  is  what  the  social 
influences  to  which  he  is  exposed  make  him.  Not  that  he 
loses  his  personality,  his-  self-acting  power,  and  becomes  an 
impuissant  thing,  a  mere  creature  of  the  forces  which  play 
upon  him  with  no  inherent  life  of  his  own.  Society  is  not  to 
be  conceived  of  as  a  vast  machine  moved  by  a  grand  spring 
of  its  own,  and  individual  men  as  the  wheels  which  move  only 
as  they  are  propelled.  The  life  of  society  is  but  the  result- 
ant of  all  the  living  forces  found  within  its  bosom.  It  has  no 
existence  separate  from  the  individuals  that  compose  it,  any 
more  than  the  gravitation  of  the  universe  exists  independently 
of  material  bodies.  Each  man  has  a  living  soul,  with  an 
energy,  intelligence  and  will,  which  are  modified  and  acted 
on  by  social  position  and  social  influences,  but  which  are 
never  lost. 

This  whole  living  generation  of  men  is  a  unit,  bound  to- 
gether by  reciprocal  actings  and  influences.     And  yet  it  docs 


8 

not  stand  by  itself  alone.  It  is  not  to  be  dissevered  from 
the  generation  past,  nor  from  the  generation  to  come.  It 
finds  in  the  former  the  conditions  of  its  origin,  and  the  solu- 
tion not  of  its  physical  existence  only,  but  of  its  intellectual 
and  moral  state  and  of  the  standing  which  in  every  respect 
it  occupies.  The  succeeding  generation  -will  stand  in  the 
same  relation  to  the  present,  as  the  present  does  to  the  past. 
It  will  come  in  to  occupy  its  place,  to  fulfil  its  tasks,  to  reap 
the  benefit  of  its  labours.  A  great  poet  has  compared  suc- 
cessive generations  of  men  to  the  leaves  of  trees  ever  falling 
and  renewed.  The  figure  will  be  adapted  to  our  subject,  if 
the  trunk  and  branches  be  allowed  to  represent  society,  and 
individual  men  the  leaves.  It  will  be  perceived  that  while 
the  latter  fall  away  year  after  year,  there  is  an  abiding  re- 
sult produced,  a  heritage  from  one  year  accruing  to  the  next. 
The  leaves  fall  off  and  perish,  but  the  trunk  remains,  and 
every  year  shoots  upward  and  the  branches  extend  outward 
and  the  wood  is  hardened.  Or  if  society  be  compared  to  the 
surface  of  the  ocean,  the  life  and  activities  of  the  individual 
will  be  as  the  waves  which  rise  and  sink,  while  yet  the  advan- 
cing tide  is  setting  steadily  in  upon  the  shore.  So  genera- 
tion after  generation  passes  away,  but  the  race  lives,  and  the 
influence  of  each  generation  abides  and  leaves  its  impress 
upon  all  that  follow.  The  world  is  not  fixed  in  dead  stagna- 
tion.    The  past  is  not  dead :  it  lives  on  in  the  present. 

In  order  to  arrive  at  a  comprehension  of  the  point  which 
I  am  desirous  to  present,  it  is  necessary  to  rise  from  what  is 
particular  to  what  is  general.  We  must  not  confine  our 
thoughts  to  the  individual  acts  of  individual  men,  nor  even 
contemplate  singly  the  movements  of  a  particular  age  or 
country.  We  must  seek  out  the  bonds  which  link  all  in  a 
higher  unity  together.  We  must  search  for  the  grand  moving 
causef  which  control  and  shape  successive  eras,  which  scoop 


9 

out  or  determine  the  channel  along  which  individual  energies 
shall  be  directed. 

No  man  can  understand  history  who  does  not  recognize 
its  unity,  who  does  not  see  that  all  the  affairs  of  men  con- 
stitute together  one  vast  chain ;  each  event  is  a  link  drawn 
onward  by  preceding  events,  itself  inducing  those  that  come 
after.  History  cannot  be  written — it  degenerates  into  mere 
annals,  where  this  is  not  perceived  and  kept  in  view.  The 
lives  of  individual  men  cannot  be  separated  from  the  period 
in  which  they  moved,  nor  can  they  be  exhibited  without 
unfolding  the  whole  state  of  things  in  which  they  played 
their  part.  Who  could  gain  any  just  idea  of  the  Refor- 
mation, its  character  or  its  causes,  if  he  went  no  further 
back  than  Tetzel's  sale  of  indulgences?  or  who  could  com- 
prehend the  principles  of  the  American  Revolution,  by 
taking  as  his  starting  point  the  destruction  of  the  tea  in 
Boston  harbour? 

This,  then,  is  the  object  presented  for  your  contemplation, 
Man,  not  the  man  of  one  country  nor  of  one  age,  but  the 
race ;  and  the  race  not  considered  as  made  up  of  dissevered 
individualities  casually  jostled  together,  but  as  a  vast  com- 
prehensive unity.  Look  abroad  upon  this  mighty  human 
mass;  survey  its  forces  and  its  movements,  and  tell  me 
what  it  is  that  you  behold. 

To  the  eyes  of  some  thus  viewing  it,  the  world  seems  a 
disordered  chaos.  Forces  innumerable  are  in  operation  in 
bewildering  confusion  with  every  various  intensity  and  in 
every  conceivable  direction.  The  endless  threads  of  influ- 
ence present  a  knotted  tangled  mass,  and  defy  all  attempts 
to  trace  or  to  unravel  them.  The  earth  appears  to  be  a  great 
seething  cauldron  where  all  is  wild  agitation,  but  with  no 
grand  definitive  result.  Humanity  is  driven,  the  sport  of 
every  various   influence,  like  the*  ocean  tossed  by  uncertain 


10 

winds.  But  what  seems  confused  upon  a  narrow  view  of 
things,  is  explained  by  making  the  range  of  vision  broader 
and  more  comprehensive.  Phenomena,  which  superficially 
considered  are  diverse  or  conflicting,  may  be  resolved  in 
common  into  some  higher  law  in  which  they  find  their  unity. 
Things  which  at  first  sight  seem  disconnected,  will  be  seen 
upon  a  more  narrow  inspection  to  bear  a  close  relation  to 
each  other.  The  ultimate  laws  of  nature  are  simple  when 
once  we  have  arrived  at  them,  and  they  explain  much  that 
seemed  irreconcilable  before. 

There  must  then,  we  conclude,  be  some  result  which  is 
the  true  summation  of  all  the  forces  acting  upon  humanity. 
It  is  that  at  which  we  wish  to  arrive,  for  it  will  reveal  to  us 
the  direction  of  the  grand  movement  of  the  race.  With  all 
this  seeming  confusion  of  currents,  eddies  and  counter-cur- 
rents, which  are  busy  upon  the  surface  of  the  great  human 
ocean,  there  is  yet  a  motion  lying  deeper  than  this,  into 
which  the  whole  of  these  partial  streams  is  ultimately 
resolvable,  a  steady  transmission  of  the  great  body  of  its 
waters  in  some  determinate  direction.  Now,  it  is  possible, 
this  being  the  case,  to  conceive  that  these  waters  might  flow 
in  a  perpetual  round,  the  race  remaining  stationary  as  a 
whole,  though  every  part  is  in  active  motion ;  the  general 
sum  of  human  knowledge,  civilization,  virtue  and  happiness 
remaining  the  same  while  constant  fluctuation  is  £oin£  on  in 
the  several  parts  of  the  human  family.  Tims  the  waters  of 
the  terrestial  oceans  are  in  incessant  ilow.  By  the  action  of 
the  sun,  the  winds,  the  earth's  rotation,  there  is  set  in 
motion  a  gigantic  Bystem  of  currents  circling  round  the 
earth,  through  which  the  whole  of  its  briny  contents  is  forced 
perpetually  to  Ilow,  and  yet  the  ocean  maintains  from  age 
re  its  ancienl  bed.  Where  the  voice  of  Omnipotence 
firsl   -aid   t<»  it,  Thufl  far  shall    thou  go  and  no  farther,  there 


11 

its  proud  waves  arc  still  staid.  Its  currents  return  upon 
each  other,  pressing  on  again  and  again  in  the  same  inces- 
sant round.  The  stream  which  pours  from  east  to  west  at 
the  equator  is  fed  by  others  returning  from  the  poles,  and 
so  the  circuit  is  kept  up  for  ever.  Is  this  the  motion  to  b§ 
attributed  to  the  human  race,  ceaseless  revolutions  but  no 
progression?  In  one  quarter  of  the  globe  we  see  nations 
rising  from  barbarism  and  pagan  superstition,  to  civilization 
and  Christianity.  During  the  same  period  in  another  the 
lights  of  science  and  civilization  have  been  quenched  in 
degradation  and  barbarism.  Contemporaneous  with  the 
spread  of  virtue  and  knowledge  in  one  part  is  their  decline 
in  another.  If  empires  rise,  it  is  upon  the  ruins  of  those 
which  have  preceded  them ;  if  they  fall,  their  broken  frag- 
ments furnish  materials  for  a  new  erection. 

Is  this  then  an  adequate  description  of  the  movements  of 
mankind?  Has  there  been,  and  is  there  to  be  nothing  but 
revolution,  revolution,  revolution,  among  men  ?  Is  there  no 
onward  march?  And  is  it  by  necessity  that  the  brightening 
light  of  day  in  one  of  earth's  hemispheres  must  be  attend- 
ed by  the  deepening  shades  of  night  in  another?  Credit 
not  the  tale.  It  is  thus  with  physical,  material  forces, 
because  they  have  attained  their  equilibrium,  and  beyond  it 
they  cannot  go. 

The  activity  of  all  the  material  agents  in  the  universe  is 
expended  in  endless  cycles.  Celestial  and  terrestrial  move- 
ments are  in  this  alike.  In  the  graphic  language  of  the 
wise  king  of  Israel:  uThe  sun  ariseth  and  the  sun  goeth 
down,  and  hasteneth  to  his  place  where  he  arose.  The  wind 
goeth  toward  the  south  and  turneth  about  unto  the  north ; 
it  whirleth  about  continually,  and  the  wind  returneth  again 
according  to  his  circuits.  All  the  rivers  run  into  the  sea; 
yet  the   sea  is   not  full:  unto  the  place  from  whence  the 


12 

rivers  come,  thither  they  return  again."  All  the  forces  are 
so  nicely  adjusted  that  they  exactly  balance  each  other,  and 
although  in  incessant  action,  they  remain  in  perfect  equi- 
poise. 

1  If  now,  we  could  believe  that  the  race  of  men  taken  at 
large  occupied  the  highest  position  in  which  they  were  capa- 
ble of  sustaining  themselves,  or  that  their  immortal  powers 
were  on  a  precise  balance  with  the  physical  forces  of  nature 
that  surround  them,  then  we  could  believe  that  any  advance 
of  the  race  was  out  of  the  question,  and  that  in  spite  of  all 
the  fluctuations  and  the  hearings  which  take  place  upon  the 
troubled  surface  of  humanity,  its  general  level  must  remain 
permanently  the  same.  But  mind  is  not  in  equipoise  with 
matter.  The  former  is  superior,  and  must  vindicate  that 
superiority  by  a  progressive  mastery. 

Besides,  the  protracted  existence  of  the  world  would  be 
without  any  worthy  end,  if  the  race  of  man  was  stationary  as 
is  thus  supposed;  if  it  has  reached  already  its  term  of  ulti- 
mate advancement,  beyond  which  progression  is  impossible, 
and  all  motion  is  henceforth  but  a  weary  drifting  round  and 
round.  If  any  thing  is  apparent,  it  is  that  this  world  was 
set  up  as  a  theatre  for  man,  for  the  play  of  his  spiritual 
activities.  Here  they  are  to  manifest  themselves,  here  dis- 
play their  strength.  If  then,  all  has  been  long  since  exhib- 
ited that  is  to  be  displayed,  and  nothing  more  remains,  no 
latent  powers  yet  to  be  unfolded,  no  new  and  untried  part 
to  1"-  acted,  no  onward  motion,  no  progression,  but  the 
same  thing  over  and  over  again  lor  ages  and  ages  still; 
B weeping  round  in  the  same  tiresome  circle  which  lias  been 
swept  again,  again  and  again  :  where  is  the  use  of  the  world 
remaining'.''  If  We  have  learned  what  the  first  lesson  in  any 
human  science  might  teach  us,  that  the  Creator  has  made 
nothing   in  vain,  nothing  Without  a  worthy  end,  we  shall   not 


13 

be  satisfied  but  there  are  purposes  yet  in  store  for  man, 
waiting  their  full  time  to  be  revealed. 

If  then,  the  race  is  not  stationary,  if  it  is  not  hopelessly 
revolving  in  an  ever  returning  orbit,  the  movement  in  which 
it  is  projected  must  be  forward  or  backward,  it  must  be 
advancing  or  retrograding.  It  must,  I  say,  be  one  or  the 
other  of  these.  If  it  be  said  that  it  is  advancing  in  some 
respects,  and  retrograding  in  others,  we  must  take  again  the 
resultant  of  these  two  movements ;  and  unless  they  be  in 
exact  equipoise,  which  would  throw  us  again  into  the  motion- 
less, or  the  rotary  scheme  from  which  we  have  just  escaped, 
we  shall  find  that  there  is  upon  the  whole  an  advance  or  a 
decline ;  and  whichever  it  be  that  is  superior,  we  may  be 
assured  that  it  will  ultimately  overpower  and  bring  into  its 
train  that  which  even  now  offers  to  it  an  ineffectual  resist- 
ance. 

The  idea  of  the  world's  retrograding  is  not  a  new  one,  nor 
has  it  been  confined  to  a  few  misanthropic,  disappointed 
minds.  It  was  embodied  in  the  classic  fable  of  the  golden 
age  successively  deteriorating  to  one  of  silver,  iron,  lead. 
It  has  found  its  way  into  the  scheme  of  many  a  moralist, 
who  has  thought  that  his  own  age  exceeded  in  vices  and 
crimes  those  of  any  other.  It  is  the  belief  of  this  which  has 
led  age  after  age  to  hang  in  admiration  of  those  who  have 
preceded  them,  and  to  fancy  that  the  men  and  the  deeds  of 
their  own  times  fall  far  below  those  of  times  gone  by. 
Paganism  never  deified  the  heroes  of  the  present,  but  always 
those  of  ancient  days.  And  may  it  not  be  true?  May  it 
not  be  that  this  idea,  which  has  wrought  itself  thus  into  the 
conceptions  of  men  so  widely  diverse,  has  its  foundation  in 
the  reality  of  things?  May  it  not  be,  that  fallen  man  will 
be  suffered  to  fall  deeper  and  deeper  still?  He  has  capa- 
bilities for  indefinite  elevation,  but  a  moral  blight  has  come 


14 

over  them,  and  his  aspirations  have  been  checked,  and  his 
upward  tendencies  have  been  reversed.  He  has  an  intellect 
fitted  to  soar,  and  he  is  bringing  the  world  beneath  his  mas- 
tery, and  chaining  the  elements  to  do  his  bidding.  The  wind 
is  compelled  to  waft  his  vessels,  and  the  fire  to  propel  his 
swift- wheeled  chariots,  and  the  lightning  to  bear  his  mes- 
sages. He  has  shown  his  power  to  conquer  nature,  but  has 
he  not  failed  to  conquer  himself,  and  will  not  this  prove  his 
ruin?  Civilization  may  increase,  and  science  flourish,  and 
wealth  multiply,  and  proud  monuments  of  art  attest  his 
fame,  but  is  there  not  all  the  while  rottenness  concealed 
within  the  trunk,  in  spite  of  this  appearance  of  vigorous 
growth,  premonitory  of  certain  ruin,  and  remediless  decay  ? 
Attained  to  this  pitch  of  seeming  greatness,  is  not  dissolution 
waiting  at  the  doors?  May  not  in  the  just  judgment  of  hea- 
ven, and  to  vindicate  the  supremacy  of  moral  law,  a  depraved 
race  be  suffered  to  sink  lower  and  lower,  until  it  shall  be 
made  palpably  apparent  that  all  the  vigour  of  the  human 
intellect  can  avail  nothing  beneath  that  terrible  weight  of 
corruption  which  is  crushing  it  to  the  earth?  There  are 
portions  and  periods  of  human  history  from  which  this  is 
undoubtedly  the  lesson  to  be  read.  Yet,  for  the  race  at 
large,  we  may  justly  entertain  higher  hopes  than  this. 

Jin t  how  is  the  destiny  of  humanity  to  be  decided?  Is 
the  decision  left  to  chance?  Have  we  here  an  infant  borne 
along  in  its  cradle  upon  unconscious  waters,  with  no  guiding 
over-watching  power,  the  plaything  of  casualty  and  accident, 
and  whose  destiny  no  one  can  predict,  whether  it  shall  sink 
hopelessly  in  the  remorselen  current  or  be  landed  at  last  in 
a  haven  of  Becurity?  No  such  power  exists,  or  holds  sway 
in  the  universe  as  chance.  What  is  it?  Where  is  it?  What 
has  it  ever  done?  The  name  is  a  cover  for  ignorance  of 
imperfect  vision.     What  men  ascribe  to  chance  ia  the  pro- 


15 

duct  of  acting  causes  and  the  evolution  of  fixed  laws,  though 
so  subtile  as  to  elude  detection,  or  so  complicated  as  to  defy 
measurement.  Arc  we  ruled  by  unintelligent,  inexorable 
fate  ?  fate  is  a  figment  of  men's  brains.  Do  then  the  for- 
tunes of  humanity  depend  upon  the  fickle  will  of  man  him- 
self, inconstant  as  the  shifting  breeze?  Are  the  hopes  of 
the  world  left  to  the  uncontrolled  free-will  of  the  actors  in 
life's  busy  scenes?  I  answer  No,  again.  It  is  beyond  the 
reach  of  possibility,  that  the  lights  of  science  should  be 
extinguished,  the  fountains  of  virtue  sealed  up,  and  the 
world  go  backward.  This  is  a  result  not  left  dependent  on 
human  caprice  or  accidental  causes.  Not  more  fixed  is  this 
globe  in  its  orbit  with  the  certain  destiny  of  rolling  onward 
around  the  centre  of  light,  than  the  march  of  mankind  is 
surely  onward  in  all  that  is  good  and  great.  Nevertheless, 
we  found  our  hopes  of  all  this  not  in  man,  but  in  the  gracious 
purposes  of  his  benevolent  Creator.  He  has  disclosed  what 
he  designs.  He  has  sketched  for  us  the  ideal  of  the  regen- 
erated earth.  To  that,  man  is  to  be  lifted ;  lifted,  not  by  a 
sudden  bound,  but  by  the  slow  maturing  of  plans  laid  in  eter- 
nal wisdom,  which  are  steadily  working  out  their  accomplish- 
ment, and  which  can  no  more  fail  than  the  mighty  laws  by 
which  external  nature  is  propelled  can  prove  insufficient  for 
their  task.  With  this  grand  advance  accordant  with  the 
will  of  the  Supreme,  seeming  and  partial  retrogrades  are  no 
more  inconsistent,  than  the  backward  motion  in  the  lower- 
most rim  of  your  carriage-wheels  proves  that  the  whole  is 
not  speeding  forward.  As  the  planets  of  our  majestic  sys- 
tem roll  round  the  sun,  they  seem  to  be  now  advancing, 
now  retrograding;  and  yet  the  astronomer  will  tell  you,  that 
our  whole  system,  sun,  earth,  and  planets  are  every  moment 
urging  onward  with  unmeasured  celerity  their  march  among 
the  stars.     The  vista   is   closing  up   behind ;  suns   and  sys- 


16 

terns  that  we  are  leaving  in  our  track  are  fading  from  view, 
while  the  heavens  are  opening  before  us,  our  course  is  on- 
ward still,  and  to  what  point  far  off  in  the  unknown  dis- 
tance we  may  yet  be  carried,  is  left  to  vague  conjecture.  In 
the  same  way,  man  is  projected  onward  in  his  race  toward 
the  infinite.  Whereto  he  has  attained,  we  see;  but  what 
he  is  destined  to  reach  we  know  not,  except  as  we  can 
gather  it  from  the  few  hasty  glimpses  furnished  us  by  inspi- 
ration, though  these  are  enough  to  waken  the  largest  hopes 
and  stimulate  the  most  ardent  desires. 

Man  is  imperfect,  but  perfectible.  Full  perfection  will 
not  be  reached  and  is  not  to  be  expected  in  the  present 
state.  That  is  reserved  for  a  higher  sphere.  But  it  argues 
extremely  low  ideas  of  what  our  Creator  has  in  store  for  us, 
or  of  those  endowments  and  capacities  with  which  he  has 
furnished  man,  to  fancy  that  the  limit  of  earthly  perfect- 
ibility has  been  attained  or  even  approximated  as  yet. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  the  race  is  advancing 
in  natural  endowments,  intellectual,  moral  or  physical. 
This  probably  is  not  the  case.  But  each  generation  stands 
upon  the  shoulders  of  its  predecessor;  and  unless  it  lives  in 
vain,  contributes  something  to  the  advantage  of  its  successor 
greater  than  itself  enjoyed.  It  is  by  successive  courses  laid 
by  the  patient  painstaking  of  age  after  age  that  the  great 
structure  of  human  progress  is  carried  forward.  If  each 
generation  were  dissevered  from  its  predecessor,  then  must 
tin;  world  stand  still.  The  men  of  each  age  would  be  pre- 
cisely where  their  fathers  were,  with  the  same  fruitless 
labour  to  renew,  of  rolling  up  the  weary  hill  the  ever-return- 
ing stone  of  Sisyphus.  There  could  then  be  no  permanent 
acquisition;  no  tasks  accomplished,  nor  lessons  learned,  to 
end urc  for  all  future  time.  Progress  would  be  impossible. 
The    unity   of    fche  human   race  would    be    broken.     There 


IT 

would  in  strictness  be  no  human  race,  nothing  but  human 
individuals.  But  as  it  is,  every  age  contributes  its  share 
to  the  increasing  store  of  human  wealth.  The  thoughts,  the 
ideas  of  former  periods,  their  skill,  their  knowledge,  refine- 
ment, cultivation,  are  the  common  stock  of  this.  This  con- 
stitutes the  capital  with  which  we  are  furnished  at  the  out- 
set, descending  to  us  by  legitimate  inheritance,  and  which 
we  are  not  only  to  treasure  up,  but  to  increase,  that  it  may 
descend  enlarged  to  them  that  shall  follow  us.  And  thus 
the  wealth  of  mankind  grows  by  successive  accumulations, 
and  the  law  of  progress  is  in  an  ever  advancing  ratio. 

The  two  great  functions  to  be  regarded  in  the  onward 
progress  of  mankind,  are  the  natural  powers  and  capabilities 
of  man  and  the  directing  hand  of  God.  Both  co-operate  in 
determining  the  result,  and  neither  may  be  forgotten  in  the 
estimate  we  form.  Man  is  made  capable  of  better  things, 
and  is  adapted  to  a  loftier  position  than  he  at  present  occu- 
pies. He  finds  in  himself  restless  longings  after  unattained 
good.  His  anticipations  of  the  future  are  gilded  with  hope 
and  spanned  by  the  rainbow  of  promise.  His  wishes  are 
always  expanding  beyond  his  present  lot,  and  his  concep- 
tions of  what  may  be  gained  invariably  outrun  what  he  has 
actually  acquired.  Hence  he  is  ever  reaching  and  striving 
after  something  which  lies  beyond  him,  ever  sighing  after 
some  improvement  in  his  condition.  Real  or  imaginary 
evils  urge  him  to  seek  their  removal.  Actual  or  fancied 
good  impels  him  to  endeavour  its  attainment.  And  thus 
the  human  mass  is  swayed  by  impulses,  which  forbid  a  quiet 
acquiescence  in  the  present.  It  is  ever  on  the  move,  some- 
times flowing  gently  in  a  placid  stream,  and  anon  heaving 
in  mad  tempestuous  surges  lashed  to  fury  by  pent  up  pas- 
sions suddenly  finding  vent.  These  movements  may  often 
be  wild,  erratic  and  misguided.  It  is  not  strange  that  they 
3 


18 

should  be,  when  we  contemplate  merely  their  human  source. 
But  all  are  under  the  conduct  of  a  controlling  Providence, 
who  directs  and  overrules  all  to  the  destined  end  of  human 
welfare.  And  no  limit  can  be  set  to  man's  advancement, 
but  that  which  is  fixed  by  the  possible  unfolding  of  his 
powers  in  this  his  mortal  state. 

The  progress  of  the  human  race  is  the  grand  resultant  of 
all  the  forces  operating  in  its  midst,  both  those  which  are 
natural  and  those  which  are  supernatural.  And  this  im- 
parts to  it  a  character  of  universality,  preserving  it  from 
becoming  partial  and  one-sided.  No  one  man,  no  commu- 
nity, no  nation  even,  nor  age,  contains  within  itself  all  the 
elements  from  which  a  symmetrical  development  of  human- 
ity must  proceed.  One  will  extend  its  efforts  and  establish 
its  triumphs  in  one  direction,  another  in  another;  but  no 
one  in  all  at  once.  All  are  necessary  parts  to  the  com- 
pletion of  the  whole;  all  join  in  the  general  onward  march. 
And  it  is  by  the  combination  of  all  that  the  ultimate  result 
is  to  be  attained.  There  is  always  something  defective, 
something  one-sided  and  incomplete  in  the  various  onward 
movements  of  distinct  portions  of  mankind.  The  questions 
and  the  struggles  which  arise,  have  something  about  them 
that  is  partial  and  local ;  and  the  results  must  bear  the  same 
partial  character.  Repeated  trials  with  varying  elements 
and  under  varying  conditions  are  needed  to  apply  the  requi- 
site correction.  Just  and  enlarged  ideas  arc  of  slow  growth, 
and  demand  an  expanded  theatre  for  their  production. 
Take,  for  example,  the  problem  of  civil  liberty ;  or  that  no 
important  and  difficult  of  religious  toleration  and  the 
rights  of  conscience.  AVho  can  write  a  just  account  of  the 
birth  of  these  great  Ideas,  and  their  expansion  to  their  pre- 
sent shape  and  dimension!  before  the  eve  of  enlightened 
humanity,  without  drawing  his  materials  from  the  whole  his- 


19 

tory  of  man  ?  They  are  not  the  products  of  one  age  or 
people,  nor  of  any  single  set  of  influences.  It  is  by  the 
concatenating  together  of  all  the  influences  which  operate 
broadly  over  the  whole  world  and  down  the  whole  course  of 
time,  that  the  needful  correction  is  applied,  and  that  the  pro- 
gress of  man  becomes  just,  uniform  and  symmetrical.  And 
the  more  intimate  and  thorough  this  concatenation  can  be 
made,  the  more  the  influences  which  are  at  work  lose  their 
contracted  local  character  and  diffuse  themselves  widely,  the 
less  will  there  be  that  is  irregular  and  sporadic  in  the  move- 
ments of  the  race.  To  this  the  intercommunication  of  the 
age  is  largely  contributing.  Let  a  despotic  blow  be  struck 
in  Hungary,  or  persecution  be  waked  in  Tuscany,  and  the 
reverberations  will  rouse  a  sentiment  of  indignation  over  the 
world  that  will  make  even  tyrants  tremble.  Mankind  are 
coming  to  resemble  a  body  through  which  the  pulsations  of 
life  are  transmitted  rapidly  and  surely  to  every  part.  And 
from  this  is  to  be  augured  only  good.  True  it  is,  that  evil 
is  invested  by  it  with  tremendous  power;  and  that  by  such 
aid  it  appears  with  a  malignity  and  spreads  with  a  virulence 
before  unknown.  But  all  that  is  good  too,  is  arming  itself 
with  similar  weapons  for  the  encounter.  Let  the  battle  be 
joined  between  light  and  darkness,  between  good  and  evil. 
Let  them  have  a  fair  struggle,  and  have  no  fears  for  the 
issue.  To  indulge  in  gloomy  apprehensions  for  the  result,  is 
to  doubt  the  inherent  superiority  of  truth,  as  well  as  the 
gracious  providence  of  God  above.  When  the  Most  High 
in  the  person  of  his  Son  introduced  the  gospel  among  men, 
he  brought  in  that  which  would  operate  as  a  corrective  of 
every  disorder,  a  remedy  for  every  ill,  and  the  fruitful 
source  of  every  heaven-born  blessing.  With  that  gospel 
given  to  the  world,  and  God's  Spirit  attending  it,  let  there 
be  no  fears  as  to  what  the  end  shall  be.     The  cause  of 


human  advancement  and  human  amelioration  rests  on  too 
secure  a  basis  for  the  enemies  of  man's  welfare  seriously  to 
disturb  it;  its  march  is  too  majestic  to  be  easily  impeded. 
This  heavenly  boon  belongs  not  to  one  nation,  nor  to  a  few 
nations,  but  to  mankind.  It  shall  come  everywhere  as  a 
purifier,  everywhere  infuse  a  new  spirit.  As  it  advances,  it 
shall  do  its  work  of  purging  out  the  evil  from  the  hearts  of 
men,  and  from  the  institutions  under  which  they  live.  And 
as  that  weight  which  hangs  like  a  heavy  clog  upon  the 
wheels,  retarding  the  progress  of  man's  upward  destiny,  is 
shaken  off  or  worn  away,  the  world  shall  advance  with 
accelerating  speed. 

Those  narrow  views  which  are  too  frequently  entertained, 
must  vanish  before  a  conception  of  this  subject  in  its  length 
and  breadth.  AVhen  histories  shall  be  written  starting  from 
this  which  is  their  only  legitimate  point  of  departure,  the 
bearing  of  the  events  recorded  upon  human  welfare,  when 
they  shall  with  faithful  pen  write  down  on  every  page  in 
what  relation  each  fact  narrated  stood  to  man's  advancement 
or  the  improvement  of  his  condition,  then  the  past  will  be 
viewed  with  other  eyes  and  with  a  juster  appreciation  of  its 
real  worth  than  it  is  at  present.  In  fact,  what  is  the  true 
function  of  history  rightly  understood  but  just  this — to  tell 
the  onward  progress  of  the  great  human  tide,  to  mark  its 
epochs  and  the  varieties  of  its  flow  ?  And  when  this  shall 
be  done,  and  truly  done,  it  will  force  from  all  the  acknow- 
ledgment that  an  almighty  Providence  was  everywhere,  and 
everywhere  working  good  for  men :  that  from  the  most  un- 
likely causes  and  the  most  untoward  instruments,  and  even 
out  of  events  seemingly  the  most  disastrous,  good  WBfl 
brought  and  the  cause  of  human  weal  gained  fresh  triumphs. 

That  bigotry  and  illil.crality  whieli  se<  -  every  thing  through 

thr  coloured  glasses  of  a  narrow  Bystem,  and  traces  all  g I 


21 

to  the  handful  of  its  own  party,  may  learn  a  lesson  from  this 
grand  scheme  in  which  a  race  co-operates:  and  from  the  fact 
that  they  who  isolate  themselves  instead  of  rising  to  a  supe- 
rior cultivation,  sink  to  barbarism :  and  that  the  first  dawn 
of  progress,  the  first  step  of  an  incipient  civilization  follows 
upon  intercourse  and  interchange  and  intercommunication. 
Even  as  regards  the  physical  structure  of  men,  segregation 
invariably  gives  rise  to  deformity  and  deterioration. 

Thus  this  magnificent  scheme  moves  on.  The  actors  in  it 
are  frail  men,  perishing  almost  as  soon  as  they  appear  upon 
the  stage,  the  good,  the  bad — the  great  ones  and  the  common 
herd  alike.  Yet  its  steady  onward  progress  is  not  inter- 
rupted from  age  to  age.  And  this,  while  kingdoms  rise, 
accomplish  their  end,  then  fall.  Races  of  men  with  their 
special  endowments  and  characteristics  have  each  their  par- 
ticular work,  which  accomplished,  they  sink  away  and  are 
supplanted  by  others,  having  again  their  several  tasks  bear- 
ing on  the  final  destiny  of  man.  Or  it  may  be,  we  narrow 
down  the  scheme  too  much  when  we  speak  of  man  and  make 
the  occurrences  of  earth  to  terminate  on  him.  Man  may  be 
linked  in  with  the  whole  chain  of  being ;  and  his  destiny  enter 
but  as  one  of  the  elements  concurring  to  make  up  a  vaster 
plan.  In  the  grand  universal  scheme,  worlds  may  be  but  as 
individual  men  to  the  scheme  conducted  on  the  earth,  mere 
waves  rising  and  sinking  on  the  ocean  of  eternity,  while  the 
grand  tide  flows  on,  the  tide  of  universal  being,  drawn  up- 
ward and  onward  by  the  centre  of  omnipotent  attraction. 
Worlds  may  be  born  and  die,  pass  their  brief  life-time,  a 
life-time  of  ages  in  the  calculus  of  man,  but  brief — a  fleeting 
shadow — the  merest  point  contrasted  with  the  life  of  God, 
wThile  yet  they  arc  working  out  an  ever  enduring,  ever  ad- 
vancing scheme.  Each  may  have  its  task;  each  its  impulse 
to  contribute  to  the  moving  mass:  and  the  grand  resultant 


22 

of  the  whole  be  a  universal  and  unending  progress  of  the  entire 
intelligent  creation  in  knowledge,  in  goodness,  and  in  like- 
ness to  the  great  Supreme. 

From  this  conception  of  the  scheme  of  the  world  and  the 
position  held  by  its  various  parts,  arise  new  views  of  the 
earnestness  and  the  consequence  of  individual  life.  While 
there  are  those  who  would  lose  the  individual  in  the  general 
mass,  I  would  rather  increase  his  sense  of  responsibility  and 
prompt  him  to  an  activity  more  zealous  and  unremitting.  It 
gives  new  consequence  to  the  actings  of  individual  men  to 
show  them  how  they  terminate  not  upon  themselves,  but  pro- 
duce results  which  enter  into  the  great  stream  of  humanity 
and  contribute  to  modify  its  flow  in  all  coming  time.  The 
age  in  which  we  live  has  its  functions  to  perform,  as  all  ages 
past  had  theirs.  It  has  its  contributions  to  make  to  the 
great  cause  of  human  weal  which  cannot  be  withheld  with- 
out guilt  to  us  and  detriment  to  it.  There  are  earnest  ques- 
tions in  the  present  age — questions  in  the  church,  questions 
in  the  state,  questions  in  social  organization,  in  science,  in 
morals.  These  must  be  guided  to  right  solutions,  not  for 
the  present  emergencies  merely,  nor  for  our  sakes  alone  who 
are  the  immediate  actors  in  them,  but  for  mankind  and  for 
all  time  to  come.  The  thorough  radical  and  the  iron  con- 
servative stand  alike  upon  extremes,  opposite  but  equally 
mischievous  and  preposterous.  The  former  would  reject  the 
present  and  sweep  away  the  fruit  of  all  past  ages,  bury  the 
lessons  of  experience,  ignore  all  that  has  been  acquired  and 
all  that  has  been  done  for  the  cause  of  man  by  the  earnest 
toils  and  struggles  and  thoughts  of  times  gone  by.  The  very 
foundations  must  lie  unsettled,  every  thing  destroyed,  that  he 
may  reconstruct  by  fancies  of  his  own,  and  bring  upon  the 
Btage  some  splendid  Utopia  which  he  has  been  hatching  in 
his    single   brain.     This  is  a  folly  and  a  criminality.     As 


23 


though  the  world  would  be  enriched  by  casting  away  its 
wealth!  or  progress  made  by  breaking  the  links  which  join 
us  to  the  past,  and  rendering  all  true  progression  impos- 
sible ! 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  to  him  who  takes  large  and  manly 
views  of  things,  is  it  less  a  folly  and  less  a  criminality  to 
attempt  to  force  stagnation  on  these  busy  scenes  of  life,  to 
harden  the  present  covering  with  which  humanity  has  envel- 
oped itself  into  an  unyielding  shell  which  shall  press  the  life 
out  of  its  expanding  body — to  lock  the  wheels  of  human  ad- 
vancement where  they  at  present  are,  and  bring  all  to  a 
stand-still,  and  claim  that  the  ultimatum  is  now  reached  and 
man  may  proceed  no  farther — and  to  represent  it  as  a  sacri- 
legious war  upon  things  sacred  when  strokes  are  dealt  at 
venerated  abuses,  or  the  cry  is  lifted  to  the  congregated  hosts 
of  men,  which  God  and  nature  bid  us  raise — March  on! 
March  on ! 

There  is  needed  on  the  part  of  the  men  of  the  present  age 
an  intelligent  conception  of  the  work  before  them ;  that  they 
be  not  blindly  led  as  dupes  of  the  designing,  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  stand  doggedly  in  the  way  of  that  which  they 
should  labour  to  promote.  We  want  neither  that  servile  de- 
pendence on  antiquity  and  authority,  which  is  inconsistent 
with  independence  of  thought  and  manly  freedom  of  action ; 
nor  that  unbridled  lust  of  innovation  which  cannot  brook  to 
walk  in  good  old  paths  simply  because  others  have  walked 
therein  before.  It  is  a  time  demanding  enlarged  and  com- 
prehensive, as  well  as  sound  and  sober  views.  It  is  time 
that  narrow-mindedness  and  bigotry  were  banished  both 
from  Church  and  State.  What  is  good  is  no  less  good  from 
having  made  its  appearance  in  an  unpromising  quarter. 
What  is  evil  is  no  less  evil  for  being  found  in  company  with 
that  which  we  admire    and    revere.     Instead    of   standing 


24 

proudly  aloof  and  asking,  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of 
Nazareth  ?  it  is  wiser  and  better  to  come  inquiringly  and  see. 
That  blind  attachment  to  party  and  to  sect  which  will  fight 
obstinately  for  the  wrong  when  held  by  our  own  side,  rather 
than  yield  to  the  right  propounded  by  an  adversary,  is  un- 
worthy of  men  of  sincere  and  upright,  not  to  say  liberal  and 
cultivated  minds.  It  is  hard  to  find  embodied  in  real  life 
unmixed  error  or  unmixed  truth,  absolute  good  or  absolute 
evil.  Every  where  there  is  a  call  not  only  for  charity  and 
forbearance,  but  for  a  wise  discrimination,  to  refuse  the  evil 
and  to  choose  the  good.  And  be  it  by  all  remembered,  that 
they  who  by  word  or  deed  or  earnest  thought  add  aught  to 
the  world's  wealth,  contribute  thereby  a  permanent  addition 
to  the  heritage  of  mankind. 

Destiny  has  been  made  the  watchword  of  spoliation.  The 
strong  have  trampled  on  the  weak  and  called  that  destiny 
which  was  the  outgrowth  of  their  own  unhallowed  passions. 
The  destiny  of  man  shall  be  our  watchword  too ;  but  it  shall 
be  one  beckoning  onward  and  upward,  and  to  be  attained 
not  by  violence,  oppression  and  bloodshed,  but  by  a  peaceful 
and  wise  devotion  to  the  truest  interests  of  our  race. 


THE  END. 


